From the Bookshelf of Books Almost Nobody Reads (But Should)…
Find A Copy At
Group Discussions About This Book
*
WHO WAS CHANGED AND WHO WAS DEAD by Barbara Comyns
By Lark · 26 posts · 22 views
By Lark · 26 posts · 22 views
last updated Oct 29, 2020 11:22AM
showing 2 of 2 topics
view all »
Other topics mentioning this book
Authors We've Read, authors we should read...
By Lark · 12 posts · 16 views
By Lark · 12 posts · 16 views
last updated Apr 27, 2023 03:41AM
What Members Thought
Well. This one knocked my socks right off.
Right from the beginning I knew I was reading something unique - eccentric, really. This whole book is delightfully eccentric. Something weirdly wonderful.
After reading the foreword written by the author herself, I knew it was penned by an eccentric too. In the early 1950s, Barbara Comyns, a single mother of two small children, paid the bills by selling antique cars. Just think about that, if you will! And she wrote The Vet's Daughter between the hours o ...more
Right from the beginning I knew I was reading something unique - eccentric, really. This whole book is delightfully eccentric. Something weirdly wonderful.
After reading the foreword written by the author herself, I knew it was penned by an eccentric too. In the early 1950s, Barbara Comyns, a single mother of two small children, paid the bills by selling antique cars. Just think about that, if you will! And she wrote The Vet's Daughter between the hours o ...more
Aug 03, 2025
Laura
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
women-british-reviewed
There are many books about poverty, childhood suffering and loneliness, abusive parents, thoughtless cruelties, and yet Comyns in The Vet's Daughter offers something unique. The whole is written in first-person perspective; Alice, seventeen years old is our narrator. She observes her life and those around her from the limited perspective of her years and her restricted economic and social circumstances. She is the Vet's daughter, in a poor part of South London, Clapham and Battersea. The first t
...more
Oh, hell. This is an incredible novel.
No real review because you have to be a fan of Comyns' odd style of narration in order to understand this book, much less enjoy it. I did enjoy it, but heaven help anyone expecting a straightforward tale. Had I not read two other of her earlier books, I probably would have been lost. Comyns is an acquired taste.
...more
Well. Barbara Comyns is quite something.
There’s no point summarizing this. It would make no sense and indeed, the book makes very little sense. But who needs sense when there is style, idiosyncrasy and a fair bit of bonkers plot tied to just enough realist emotion, all packed neatly into 120 pages?
I had the NYRB Classics copy and it was further proof of their editors’ excellent taste in resurrecting Comyns, and also their cover designers uncanny knack for finding images that seem entirely rando ...more
There’s no point summarizing this. It would make no sense and indeed, the book makes very little sense. But who needs sense when there is style, idiosyncrasy and a fair bit of bonkers plot tied to just enough realist emotion, all packed neatly into 120 pages?
I had the NYRB Classics copy and it was further proof of their editors’ excellent taste in resurrecting Comyns, and also their cover designers uncanny knack for finding images that seem entirely rando ...more
I loved this odd, exceedingly dark little book, but I almost want to start it over again from the beginning to see how Comyns was able to formulate this bizarre alchemy so well with such disparate elements. And she made it look easy.
The less one knows about this novel going into it, the better. I need to check out more of Comyns' work.
...more
The less one knows about this novel going into it, the better. I need to check out more of Comyns' work.
...more
Odd but endearing Gothic novel.
The world of The Vet's Daughter is bleak little place.
Alice's father is a brute. When he is at home, a dank little house by the river, they scuttle around silently to not disturb him. There is a parrot in the parlor. When he is away, her mother tells Alice stories of her youth: how she was loved, the countryside. The vivisectionist comes to buy some dogs, and her father throws in a rabbit. Alice escapes to the park with the smell of chloroform clinging to her. Her mother is sick.
Alice describes ...more
Alice's father is a brute. When he is at home, a dank little house by the river, they scuttle around silently to not disturb him. There is a parrot in the parlor. When he is away, her mother tells Alice stories of her youth: how she was loved, the countryside. The vivisectionist comes to buy some dogs, and her father throws in a rabbit. Alice escapes to the park with the smell of chloroform clinging to her. Her mother is sick.
Alice describes ...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
A classic I've had on the shelf for years, rose like cream to the top of my favorites for this year. Bleak but well done and absorbing story of the ill-used daughter of a veterinarian and her too-brief sojourn into a happy, hopeful life. I want to read more of Barbara Comyns' work.
...more
Oct 30, 2016
Seana
marked it as to-read
Feb 01, 2019
Carrie
marked it as to-read
May 06, 2020
Bryn
marked it as tbr-authors
Jul 13, 2020
Carol
marked it as to-read
Sep 24, 2020
Amanda Gibson
marked it as to-read
Dec 12, 2021
O
marked it as to-read
May 20, 2022
ColumbusReads
marked it as to-read
Jan 21, 2023
Nicole W
marked it as to-read
Jun 25, 2023
McCarthy
marked it as to-read
Aug 30, 2023
Yahaira
marked it as to-read
Oct 17, 2023
Lucas Guarnieri
marked it as to-read
Sep 18, 2024
Minna
marked it as to-read
